Thursday, September 22, 2022

Billing Boats #800 Regina Jact - wooden ship diagrams

 


 

    Recently,  I have been asked for copies of the Regina Jact instruction diagrams.  In trying to help the gentleman,  I did a search of my own.  I knew what I was going to find.  Wood kits are much different than plastic kits.....there is a lot more scratch build that goes into them.  This is not to say that there isn't for plastic kits,  but for plastic kits,  after market and special detail parts can be ordered....the use of photo etch parts are also available.  Plastic kits have an abundance of detail pre molded into the parts,  whereas wood kits are bland and require extra wood to be either machined or shaped to create the added detail.

    I've done similar searches for projects that I wanted to do.  Sadly,  wooden ship modeling companies only distribute the instruction parts of their kits.  Diagrams and what can be called blueprints, are not usually released.......even if the model in question is long out of production.  One of my projects is an old Billing Boat model kit called the Progress,  kit number # 443.  It was produced as far back as 1977,  along with the Billing Nordkap....the kit is likely much older.  By estimates,  I have an old 1977 catalog that lists it.......same scale as the Nordkap and very similar.  They may be similar ships,  but the kits are clones of one another.  Trying to find the instructions for the Progress have been close to fruitless....but I did manage to find a couple of these diagram pictures.  The Regina is just the opposite......I have found the instruction texts,  but these diagrams are nowhere to be seen.  As far as I am aware,  the kit is out of production,  and due to the company structure,  they cannot be ordered from them.  The rely on their distributors to handle the customer service end....and I have a good idea how they handle it.......mostly at their expense.  It is with this knowledge that I post these diagrams.   There are three of them.  they are large sheets,  so doing them as a full sheet is out of the question,  and to post them as a full sheet would make it hard to read what is a part number or color.  There should be enough of an over lap for one to tape them together in the order that I took the pictures. They have not been reduced.  The order is left top,  right top,  right bottom,  and left bottom.  To be clear.......I will not make copies,  nor will I give them away.  I make no money for doing this.......but if these diagrams will not be released to the public,  someone has to do it.  I had a lot of enjoyment building my model of the Regina.........if it saves just one kit from hitting the garbage due to lost instructions or diagrams,  then this will be worth it.  I hope you find these useful.  If not,  I am always happy to help.

1st sheet:






second sheet:





third sheet:



























 




Monday, May 2, 2022

Richard Earle's 58 Plymouth Fury 'Christine' - Revell

     I finished this one after I finished the AMT Christine kit.  The Revell kit was produced in 1993,  in a series of 'Shoebox' Pro Modified drag racing car kits.   The models consist of a detailed chassis,  and a body that can be removed easily to show it.  The hood is also removable....kind of redundant in my opinion,  but offers another cool view of the model.  Another Shoebox model that I've built was the Dick Brown's Motorsport Jukebox Ford,  a 55 Thunderbird.  That model was a nice build as well,  but I could have done better with the paint.  Some may not think so,  but there is an unspoken rule with the use of flats VS gloss paints.

     The chassis was the first part to be finished.  I chose to go with a flat steel for the chassis deck,  which accented the use of aluminum and silver.  The roll cage was done in flat dark gray.  The instructions indicated the use of gloss colors,  but after my experience with the Jukebox Ford,  I decided to change it up.







The decal work went well,  except for a few problems.  Decals this old can suffer from too much humidity,  or dry out and become micro cracked.  Sometimes it can be seen with the naked eye,  but can present itself when you go to use them.  Once they become wet,  they will fragment into a thousand pieces,  rendering them useless.  Testors puts out a product called Decal Bonder,  which can be sprayed on the decal sheet that will revitalize them.  Note that there is still a small chance that they won't be any good.....but the odds are in your favor.  That is what happened to the long graphic decals along the sides;  they were not micro cracked per say.......but broke into sectional pieces after the decal became moveable on the paper.  The adhesive for the decals,  was the cloudy milk like stuff......I simply wipe where I intend to slide off the decals as I use them.  It wasn't that bad of an ordeal actually.....I was able to line up the sections easily.  I did the decals in two sessions,  one side at a time,  and around some areas of the decals,  I trimmed off the flash that decals have around the edges of the images,  so they would mate up along edges and contours of the body without any wrinkles.  The spoiler braces and the chute assembly that was already assembled,  were the last part to be added to the body.  Together,  the two combine into a stellar looking model!








.....And there it is.....it's a great model to build.  Enjoy.......and thanks for look'in in!











 





                                   




 








Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Christine - the finished model

     Good news!..........the Round 2 1:25 scale model of Christine is finished!  The model was fun to build, although it had a few scary moments.......the big one was when the chassis was joined to the body.  A lot of contortion had to be done to get the body to slide into place.  One key was that the rear fenders are not attached to the rear fascia.....it enables you to spread the quarters apart to get the tabs to fit into place.  It does sit well......I used no glue in this process.  


     The red colored plastic does present issues with painting,  primarily in the form of ghosting.  The finished model does look good though,  and that is the testament in how the molds stood the test of time.








      As mentioned in an earlier blog,  I bought it with the intent to build it into a pro modified drag car, but my wife voted it down,  wanting to see the model the way it was.  My digging into the history of AMT and this subject startled the heck out of me when I found that there actually was a model of such a car out there.  It was among the Revell offerings,  a 1:25 scale model of Richard Earle's Christine,  a Pro Modified drag machine.  Why they referred to it as a 'shoebox',  I have no idea as of yet,  but the term is also used for the Revell model of the Jukebox Ford,  another Pro Modified racer,  likely from a series that Revell produced.  I haven't done any research to see how many are in the series,  or what the subjects are,  but they are interesting.  I wanted to buy another Christine Pro Modified,  to experiment with another body style {another subject},  but they must be rare,  because the prices I'm seeing are a but much.  My wife must have overheard my sputtering,  because she too started looking too.  But it was for the movie car.......and not the pro modified.......but she came up with another car from another model from the AMT era.  In 1983,  ERTL acquired AMT and merged to become AMTERTL.  ERTL was right up there with Tonka,  with their selection of construction and farm toys.  They came out with a series of 'classic' car and truck model kits,  from their original molds and some retooled,  giving them more detail.  It was definitely a winner!   Seeing the kit......and not being labeled Christine,  I was intrigued and ordered the kit.  Now.......earlier in the building of Christine,  on my favorite forum site,  I teased about other cars that might make interesting Pro Modified racing models.  I showed a picture of this car.........

    Car buffs recognize it as a Chrysler 300c........can you imagine this car on a drag strip near you???  I love the cars of this era....they have such style and.......and.......fins!  I had fantasized about getting a model and scratch building it into a racer......I would never have thought!  While ordering this model:

I saw this model:

     Can you imagine my elation!  I have both kits in my possession...the biggest draw is that they are both molded in grayish white plastic.......should be a lot easier to paint.  AMT finally disappeared in 2012.......their molds dispersed into the wind,  with Round 2 Models acquiring the bulk of them.  More and more of the kits are beginning to show up on store shelves and internet sites,  so if you've built them before,  you can now join me in reliving your childhood and revel in the nostalgia that these kits will bring.  I'll show you these kits in the next blog,  or as I get to them.  At the moment,  I have so many projects on the go.......we'll see what happens.
















Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Christine - the infamous car of the silver screen

Hello all,


     You've probably seen the movie.......a movie that is right up there with "Carrie".  There are a few movies that involves killer vehicles........like Dennis Hopper in the movie "duel"....that one sticks out in my head.  And there was the movie that a bunch of trucks tried to demolish a gas station......I think that movie was simply called "Trucks".  But.......there are no models of Plymouth Valiants or demonic trucks on the market at the moment........just Christine,  produced by Round 2 Models Inc.  There is an interesting story here.......

     The Admiral and I were at the local Michael's craft store a couple of weeks ago.  She likes to do puzzles and wanted to get some glue to mount one she really liked.  While we were there,  we decided to look at my obsession.......models......to see what they had.  In my last blog,  I talked about old and new model companied,  and how molds never die.......they simply change hands.  I promised to talk about this particular company....this is the perfect time.  Round 2 has been in business since the early 2000's,  and to get started,  they bought up a slew of the older molds from bygone companies,  such as MPC,  AMT, Aurora,  and along with others that they could get their hands on.  One thing I'm disappointed in the company about,  is the fact that with some kits,  they removed the actual date stamps and added their own in laser ink.  Might not be the biggest thing to lose sleep over,  but with some plastics,  the writing can be seen through the plastic.  For folks who don't like to paint,  it might be a buzz kill,  but it means that the model must be painted,  if one doesn't want to be haunted by it.  It possibly can be removed with a cleaner or sandpaper,  but I've not tried it yet.  Of course,  the use of older molds means there will be flash.  With the ones I've bought so far,  this has rang true.......that and flared mating seams.  Sandpaper and filler will be your best friends.  It is nice though.......a lot of the old 3 'n 1's are starting to resurface......when I was a lad,  They were the best models to buy.  They gave you plenty of spare parts!

     Looking at the models.......I couldn't make up my mind....there were a couple that I liked.  The admiral then spotted Christine......"Jee......why don't you get this one?"   I hemmed and hawed a little,  but then my mind started to work........that model would make a super looking Pro modified!  I built the Revell "Jukebox Ford"...and had a ball with it {wasn't crazy with the decals though}.  I shouldn't have mentioned it though,  because the admiral got all defensive,  and stated that she wanted Christine to be built the way she is supposed to look.

   After we got home,  my curious nature took over...especially when I saw the kit supplied decals.  I don't recall decals being on the car.  Now AMT went out of business around 2012.  If Round 2 produced the kit,  why would they put the AMT logo on it?  so I did some research on the model.  Originally, Johan was the first to come out with a model of this car......Johan and AMT were two of a handful of companies that produced promo model for car dealerships.  It was produced in the later part of the 50's by Johan......it didn't show up on AMT's radar until 1983,  when they came out with the "Slammers" series of model cars.
     The thing about this though,  is that I've seen pictures of the finished model,  and it looks like the engine carbs and high hats were merely stuck on the hood,  rather than coming out of an opening in the hood,  which made me wonder if there was an engine in it.  There was also a snap together kit as well,  so I may have seen that one......dunno.   But as far as I saw,  this model was their only offering of this car.  Then I stared in disbelief.......my lucky day!  In 1993,  Revell produced a model of Richard Earle's '58 Plymouth Fury.......Christine!

    I'm thinking that this model was part of the series that the "Jukebox Ford" is part of.  No matter.....I want it!  I began to search.........which produced very little luck.  I then turned to places like Etsy, and Mercari........no luck there......E-bay and Amazon were my last hopes.  I saw two on E-bay....one was a broken kit {parts missing} and another one that appeared to be still available.  I contacted the seller and was told that it had already been sold.  This spanned a couple of days.......I sent Alan Bussie at old model kits an e-mail,  in the meantime.  He didn't have one,  and his business is so large now,  that he stopped doing reserves {I didn't blame him and understood}.  He did agree with me though,  that this might be one of Revell's rare kits {every manufacturer has a few},  because he's only handled one in his entire business existence.  I decided to give it another look,  and I saw another one for around $20.00 more......the first sighting was for $65.00.  I selected the 'buy it now'.....and got the kit!  Shipping was about $8.00.   If I didn't see the second one,  I was tempted to pull the trigger on the broken kit....but it would have meant that I'd be scratch producing a few parts.
     I got the notification when it was sent out.......due to hit my door step on Thursday.  After setting up the notifications with the post office,  I got one that stated that I would see it on Wednesday...today!  I have the kit,  and giving it an examination,  I saw that all the parts are there.  there was some assembly done though......the engine was partially assembled,  along with a few other parts.  They were done fairly neatly,  but the engine is a head banger due to what needs to be painted.  The fellow failed to scrape the chrome though,  so all of the parts came off alright except for the intake manifold,  which a small piece broke off as I removed it.  As luck would have it......I had the exact same manifold in my spare parts box!  All is right with the world :) 

     Of course.......these two models didn't come from the same mold,  but one can be sure that the AMT kits did.   This is a fair example of how kit can be repurposed to create other kits.  The modeling medium touches on a huge variety of subjects,  but there are still so many more that are passed over,  and I see little reason why there are fictitious kits being produced.  Just for a chuckle,  I looked at the movie bio,  to see how the car became possessed.  One would figure that a person at the auto plant died working on that particular car....not the case.  Yes......two people at the plant died because of the car,  but they died after the car was built.  The bio says nothing about how though....was it a rouge fan belt.......a disgruntled safety belt {if they were even mandated then}......perhaps it was a rattled radio?!?!?  All that is known,  is that as long as the car was driven and loved,  it was happy.  As the affair was going on,  the car would change the owner to the image of it's maniacal self,  until it ultimately kills them.  Unloved,  the car would fall into disrepair.   Check out some of the images of this car online........some folks have quite an imagination.  I love it!

     I hope you enjoy this summary.....I really enjoyed researching it :) 
 




Tuesday, March 8, 2022

The Nostalgia of it all

   hello all.......it's been a while since I've posted anything worthwhile......a lot has happened since.  My modeling has gone on undeterred,  rest assured,  which has caused me to come to some conclusions concerning the history of model kits.  Think back to your younger days,  when you'd go to the store and purchase that model kit that you've had your eye on for some time.  once you got home,  it was the mad dash to build it.  I recall such times.......makes me peckish every time I think of the more interesting subjects I chose.  

    Models of the day were primitive....something I have come to realize,  having built a few in the NOW world.  It goes even deeper........it delves into the companies and the molds they created to make these wonderful kits.  Back then,   you had Pyro,  Lindberg Line,  MPC,  AMT,  and a long list of other model companies that later generations haven't heard of.  As with history,  there's time.......and time has a way of changing demographics.......older companies go under........and new companies pop up from the ashes.

    In my day,  the later companies were my choices,  along with Revell,  Monogram,  and Aurora.  I  hardly dabbled in the foreign model companies....Heller bubbles up from the memory banks for some reason,  but I forget when they actually started up.  Foreign companies would produce for the American consumer,  importing their products.  Oldmodelkits.com is a great place for articles on this subject.....the history they they talk of is very interesting.  They also talk about the origins of injection molding....model making in general...how it came to be,  who started doing it first,  and how it changed the model kit.

    It starts with a mold,  and then the process for making the parts for the model.   There is quite a bit to it........the tooling........the research.....measurements to pertain to a particular scale.   They were simple in design.......they featured a low parts count,  which meant that the aspects like engines,  drivetrains,  exhaust,  and suspensions,  were molded as detail.....there wasn't much to them.  Only a few companies monopolized on this,  with the idea of getting an edge on their competitors.  Models you could build in an afternoon was the sales pitch,  which started the hobby.  As model making evolved,  that sale pitch was rallied less and less..........modelers began to expect more.  The evolution spanned over many years,  and it still does today........this of course raised the parts count in a model kit,  and even expanded other avenues.

   As early as the '50's,  companies and a few stand alone start up companies, began producing accessory and upgrade kits for existing kits and older ones.  Some didn't go over too good....mainly due to the cost of the kit,  or the kit it was designed for.  The pocket book and the desire to modify kits was another reason this didn't take off.  It is surprising,  considering the fact that the earliest form of modeling was scratch building.  To be clear.......the hobby isn't new........man {and woman} always had this urge to build something with their hands...creativity was always a form of enjoyment.  When the model kit came to be, they were embraced with open arms.  Wood modeling was another form of the medium....the main root of modeling in general;  ships being the main subject.  There was also model trains..........these folks followed an open form of scaling,  which made it hard for them to sell their models,  if some wished to purchase one.  The off set of scale made it impossible that one man's model would fit on another train enthusiast's track.  This didn't find a remedy,  until the classification of scale was established.  The train medium was reluctant to get on board,  being the last to do so.

     Pardon if I digressed,  but the beginnings of the modeling hobby is important.  Most modeling historians put the start of the hobby around the 30's or 40's........I believe it began sooner than that, dating it as far back as the late 1800's {hand carvings}.  but.....back to the subject at hand.  Some molds were retooled to add detail that wasn't known at the time.........some molds were even expanded to multiple molds to make the parts for a single model kit.   but there's still a good number of molds that saw no changes what so ever.  As companies went out of business,  the molds were bought up by other companies,  and their production continued under a new name.  I have built Revell kits that were first produced by Aurora.  All molds have a stamping on them as to when they were made.......it can be found most times in an inconspicuous place on a part.  Companies who buy these molds will sometimes change the stamping over to their logo........some do not.  I like to find these stampings to find out when the molds were created......they are date stamped as well.  A good example is the Monogram M48A2 Patton Tank I just built......even though the instructions were revised in 2011,  and the kit was dated 2018,  the molds for the model was produced in 1966!

     Another trick that model companies do to boost choices and sales,  is to clone other kits from a single set of molds.   Different subjects,  but the same model subject.......a B17 can be six different subject choices,  but they are all done with the same kit molds.  I found this out with the 1:96 series of Revell ships.  The Thermopylae was cloned from the Cutty Sark kit.......the C.S.S. Alabama was cloned from the HMS Kearsarge kit.......the U.S.S. United States was cloned from the U.S.S. Constitution kit {this one was interesting,  because a few extra parts had to be added to the United States kit because of the modified stern}.  An avid modeler has probably figured this out.......really......how many Revell pro stock race cars can one build without seeing the similarities.  They become old hat after a while.

    Two main companies have emerged within the past few years.......Round 2 and Atlantis.  These two companies have bought up quite a few of the original molds for the older models.  ........and without any retooling at all,  they are producing these models.   Now this isn't a bad thing.......nostalgia folks like myself enjoy dabbling with the old kits........but they tend to create challenges revealing the mistakes that were born into these kits.  One was the Revell B24 'Buffalo Bill'.  Firstly,  there was no such thing as a B24 named Buffalo Bill,  and the biggest shortcoming of the kit was the landing gear.  The way the model was molded,  the landing gear was totally unconceivable,  nor believable.  I was doing a collection of captured wartime aircraft at this point in time,  getting reference information from a book called "Luftwaffe KG 200" by Geoffrey Thomas and Barry Ketley.........from the book,  I dubbed the plane "Sunshine",  the second B24 to have been captured by the Germans in WW2.  Revell produced this model back in the 60's.....they later produced the Pacific Raiders kit in the mid 60's {I have this kit}.  Atlantis reproduced the Buffalo Bill kit from the original molds,  right down to the decals.  It wasn't too hard to find the decals for Sunshine.  The modification to the landing gear to make it look functional wasn't too hard to do.  To begin with,  there are no gear doors...they are molded to the underside of the wings.  The gears themselves were eliminated,  but I use the tire shafts to fill in the holes in the tire,  to simulate hub caps.  The tires were sanded down to half their thickness and cemented in the round impressions that were molded for them.  .....and yes,  there are pictures!



These are the kit box art.  They show the landing gear in the down position......in flight,  they would be retracted.  yes....I suppose they could be coming in for a landing....the camel could be a give away,  but my thoughts didn't go in that direction.  But you see what I mean....Atlantis didn't even change the box art.  The model inside was no exception.......but it did build into a nice model.




                                                                                 

The tire are nestled neatly under the wing....looks more normal!  Atlantis also reproduced the Pacific Raiders kit as well.


 

Same story here.......no changes.   Don't get me wrong.......they are still nice kits,  but these molds are not spring chickens.  With age,  the molds do deteriorate and flash is a result.  I had to do a lot of clean up with these kits.  I also have the Atlantis B25 kit....I've yet to do any research on the history,  but as a hint......it is part of the same series of models.  Models are produced in this manner......usually in a series that could consist of three to ten kits.......depending on the subjects,  some could be even larger.

    I started out as a plastic modeler....god knows how many models I've built.  In 2009,  I started to build wooden ships,  and I've found a lot fun building them,  but since the last couple of years,  I've seem to slid back towards plastic models.  I've seen that wood kits are no different really.......they have their fictitious subjects and mistakes,  just like the plastic kits.  My scratch building skills are pretty good,  but it's still hard to say which medium is easier to work with......correcting mistakes and adding extra detail.  I tend to think that it's up to the modeler......especially if he or she can think quick for solution to remedy problems.   Coupled with these two abilities,  the modeler should have no problem with older kits.  Old kits are out there.......whether they are reproduced by companies or from attics and basements.  Round 2 is the next subject......I have a model in the post at the moment.  When I get it,  it will kick off the next installment on this subject.  so.........until then...........



Thursday, December 19, 2019

Lindberg Flying Dutchman - 1:130 scale model instructions

this next set of instructions is another Linberg models kit.  It's part of the Jolly Rogers series and produced as a ghost pirate ship.  Done in the same scale as the initial Jolly Rogers,  the Flying Dutchman kit plastic,  is a special plastic that glows in the dark.  I have not finished this kit at this point in time,  but I can safely tell you to ignore the day glow thing and paint it......it's really doesn't live up to the hype.  The model kit is plagued with the same fit issues that the Jolly Rogers has,  so take your time and test fit all parts before committing to glue.  These two model are definitely clones.
     The instruction booklet is smaller........only consisting of 12 pages.   Kit # HL218/12













      These instructions are dated 2016,  and the kit is produced and sold by Round 2 Models,  promoted as the 'New Lindberg Line'.  the over seas partner is International Hobbycraft UK Ltd.